Has anyone heard of Pool Proof - Borate Water Harmonizer?

[kathyo]

Has anyone heard of Pool Proof? I saw a YouTube video that said it is a Borate Water Harmonizer (whatever that means). Our local Dolphin Pools (a much smaller chain than Leslies that seems more trustworthy) has been advertising it. They say that one treatment a year will keep us from having algae at all. We've been having some small amounts of algae this spring. Here in Texas we don't close the pool, it just runs less in the winter. When the water warmed up we noticed algae and went thru the shock process (kept the chlorine at shock level [18] until an overnight test showed no clorine loss and the CC was less than .5. But we still keep getting a small amounts of algae mostly around the spa and stairs. The sun is very strong here and the chlorine burns off quickly. The pool temperature is already 80. I was wondering if this Pool Proof is worth the money (one time is approx $250) if we stop having algae problems. Thanks!

FC = 5.5 (I just added bleach this morning)
CC = 0
pH = 7.6
TA = 90
CYA = 30

 

[JasonLion]

Re: Has anyone heard of Pool Proof - Borate Water Harmonizer

PoolProof is a liquid which adds borates to the water. Once in the water it is exactly the same thing as adding borates any other way. Many of the benefits they claim for PoolProof are true of any borate source, and the remainder are true with or without borates in any pool (most people run their pump too long, and can reduce that run time with or without borates). See this post for more information on using borates. Borates are not magical, you can still get algae, though it does give you a little more margin that you have without borates.

You should raise your CYA level. With CYA at 30 and lots of sunlight your FC level fluctuates too much through the day to remain effective at all times. I suggest your raise CYA to 50, which should improve things significantly.

 

[woodyp]

Re: Has anyone heard of Pool Proof - Borate Water Harmonizer

http://nisuscorp.com/images/uploads/doc ... lproof.pdf
Thre's a link for the MSDS on the product. Bottom line----borates is borates so to speak. My pool is full sun all day and I say go to 50 ppm CYA like Jason said. Mine still loses more than the "average" 2 ppm FC daily, but it helps some. I also keep a better/higher average of FC by adding bleach at the end of the day vs. morning additions. Gives it a better chance of cleaning up nasties during dark hours.

 

[kathyo]

Re: Has anyone heard of Pool Proof - Borate Water Harmonizer

Thanks, I will read about borates more. But that brings up another question. If I bring the CYA up to 50, looking at the Chlorine/CYA table, it looks like the chlorine needs to be 6 to be effective. That seems high. My Taylor test only goes up to 5, isn't 6 a bit high? I have a FAS/DPD test that I use when I shock.

 

[RobbieH]

Re: Has anyone heard of Pool Proof - Borate Water Harmonizer

And you should not need to add more borates every year, or at least very little due to splash-out. I did borates in my pool early last year and love what they did for my pool.

6ppm isn't high, most of it is going to be buffered by the CYA until needed. Effectively you'll be at the same FC level as before.

I strongly suggest gettting a better test kit, the TF-100 or K-2006.

 

[chem geek]

Re: Has anyone heard of Pool Proof - Borate Water Harmonizer

If I bring the CYA up to 50, looking at the Chlorine/CYA table, it looks like the chlorine needs to be 6 to be effective. That seems high. My Taylor test only goes up to 5, isn't 6 a bit high? I have a FAS/DPD test that I use when I shock.

The 6 ppm is a target, but it is effective at preventing algae so long as it doesn't get below 4 ppm. 6 ppm FC with 50 ppm CYA has the same amount of active chlorine (hypochlorous acid) as 0.1 ppm FC with no CYA. That is not a typo. 98.2% of the chlorine in the water is bound to CYA and for practical purposes is inactive (of the part unbound, about half is hypochlorous acid and half is hypochlorite ion). It is released as active chlorine gets used up, but the rate of killing algae and pathogens and reacting with skin, swimsuits and hair, etc. is based on the active chlorine level, not on the FC level.

So you use your FAS-DPD for measuring your regular chlorine level, not just for shocking. That's why we recommend people to have the FAS-DPD chlorine test -- not just for shocking, but for regular chlorine testing as well at least when it's important to know the level with some degree of accuracy.

 

[kathyo]

Re: Has anyone heard of Pool Proof - Borate Water Harmonizer

Thanks everyone!

 

[Kristin]

Re: Has anyone heard of Pool Proof - Borate Water Harmonizer

Hi kathyo,

I work for Nisus Corporation, maker of PoolProof, and would love to shed some light on the product for you and others here if you still have any questions.

Yes, borates all work pretty much the same way in pools, but the two major problems with granular borate involves difficulty getting a granular product to dissolve, and that granular borate formulations' alkalinity, which approaches 9.5, necessitates a subsequent addition of acid to the pool to the tune of about one pound of acid to every two pounds of granular borate. Borates are very strong buffers and a lot of acid is needed after their addition to get your pH back down to normal.

With that in mind, we formulated PoolProof to solve those two issues. First, it is an easily-dissolvable liquid that will neither sit on the top of the water or the bottom of the pool. It will not end up in your skimmer or clouding the water surface, and doesn't need to be carefully broadcast throughout the pool to avoid clumping or surface damage.

Secondly, rather than using sodium tetraborate pentahydrate (which has a very high pH) we start with a disodium octoborate tetrahydrate, which has a pH of about 8.5. We then acidify it to bring the pH back down to 7.6, and remove nearly all of the sodium hydroxide to create a pH-stable material. There's no need to add any acid after applying PoolProof if your pool's pH was balanced prior to application. Once added to the pool, PoolProof will only require a minor topping off in subsequent years. It does not degrade or evaporate from the water with time.

 

[JasonLion]

Re: Has anyone heard of Pool Proof - Borate Water Harmonizer

difficulty getting a granular product to dissolve

With thousands of people following our instructions on how to add borates using borax and muriatic acid, no one has ever reported any problems getting the borax to dissolve. The occasional problems mostly have to do with handling muriatic acid, which can be rather annoying.

rather than using sodium tetraborate pentahydrate (which has a very high pH) we start with a disodium octoborate tetrahydrate

There is a third choice, boric acid, which is just slightly acidic, so slightly that it is essentially PH neutral. As with Pool Proof, boric acid can be added alone, without any additional acid or base to balance the PH. The price of boric acid is also dramatically lower than Pool Proof based on pricing found on the Internet, local pricing may vary.